Mount St. Hilary
Mount St. Hilary is famous for being the place where the Ark crashed on Earth...sometimes.
Fiction
Generation 1 continuity family
Marvel The Transformers comics
Roughly four million years ago, the Transformers space cruiser, the Ark, crashed into the side of the dormant volcano in Oregon not far from Portland. It lay undisturbed until the volcano erupted again in 1984. The explosion reactivated the systems aboard the Ark, which promptly set about restoring the Autobots and Decepticons on board. The Transformers
Mount St. Hilary would serve as the headquarters of the Autobots for the next few years. At one point, Wheeljack installed a number of automated gun emplacements around the volcano. These were hidden inside the rock face, emerging through sliding panels as they were needed.
Under the leadership of Grimlock, the Autobots completed repairs on the Ark Used Autobots and successfully relaunched it into space. Child's Play The hole left behind still contained a variety of discarded machinery and communications systems. These were later used by the Autobot Goldbug to send a distress call Toy Soldiers! that was eventually received by the Autobot Headmasters on Nebulos.
They answered the distress call and made their way to Earth followed by the Decepticons. Tracking the source of the signal, they arrived at Mount St. Hilary to find Spike Witwicky looking for his missing brother, Buster.
Not long after, the Decepticon Headmasters attacked and trapped Spike in the volcano. Scorponok caused molten lava to erupt from the cavern floor. Fortress Maximus’s Headmaster, Galen, attempted to save Spike by pushing him out of the path of a rock fall and died himself in the attempt. Trial by Fire!
Later a Firebug landed on Earth on one side of the volcano and an Autobot shuttlecraft landed on the other side the next morning. Firebug!
After this, Mount St. Hilary played no further role in the Transformers war.
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
The Transformers cartoon
The Ark crashed to Earth, smashing into a volcano. There it rested until a volcanic eruption four million years later reactivated it and its inhabitants. More than Meets the Eye, Part 1
Tremors led the Autobots to uncover a cavern within the volcano containing fossilized dinosaur bones, leading to the creation of the Dinobots. S.O.S. Dinobots However, the volcano didn't erupt again until Megatron brought Cybertron into Earth's orbit, causing geological chaos. The activity in the volcano ceased when Ironhide bravely drove in and blasted rock debris from the crater rim, plugging the shaft. The Ultimate Doom, Part 2 At some point the Autobots installed an elevator up the interior of the volcano's main vent. Enter the Nightbird
This location served as the Autobots' headquarters until the construction of Autobot City. A short time after the defeat of Unicron, the volcano was smashed into a pile of loose shale by Trypticon. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 5
Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers manga
Autobot Headquarters was located in Arizona. Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers issue 2
Micromaster
After a battle with the Decepticons, the Autobot Micromasters discovered ruins of Cybertronian origin at Mount St. Hilary, including a piece of metal with a Predacon faction symbol on it (though none of the Micromasters knew the symbol's significance). Sixtrain! Activate Red Mode!! The Autobots set up a headquarters at the base of the volcano. While excavating the ruins, they uncovered a stasis pod which emitted a strange radiation that brought forth a combiner team from an alternate dimension. The Menace of Landcross's Combining Formation!
The Battle for Planet Earth
Mount St. Hilary was part of the Arvins mountains range. Bumblebee to the Rescue Despite the Ark having been stuck into the side of it, the Autobots had no idea what a volcano looked like. Terror of Mount Sheelah
Beast Wars cartoon
"Camelot!"
"It's only a model."
"Sssh!"
Blackarachnia and Silverbolt dug into the side of the volcano, finding the cavern containing the Ark. The Predacon leader Megatron had discovered its location, and subsequently, he infiltrated the Ark, severely damaged the stasis locked Optimus Prime, and unleashed a time storm centered on the volcano. The Agenda (Part III) After stabilising the Autobot leader, the Maximals installed the remains of their ship in the cavern, using it as their base. Optimal Situation
After Megatron located and reactivated the Nemesis, he used the warship's tractor beams to pull off chunks of the volcano, exposing the Ark's rear section. Nemesis Part 2
Knights of Unicron
The Mt. St. Hilary Amphitheater was the first venue for the Knights of Unicron on their 2014 "Till All Are One" tour. Knights of Unicron
2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon
Mount St. Hilary was the site of the Autobots' first base on Earth. Much later, Strongarm and Fixit visited to check for any abandoned artifacts, and stopped the volcano from erupting due to a ill-advised scavenger hunt by a Decepticon and her Mini-Con partner. Strongarm's Big Score
Cyberverse cartoon
Merchandise
- In 1984 Presto Magix released a transfer set called Trouble on Mount St. Hilary.
- In 1985 Mount St. Hilary appeared on the Action Cards trading cards from Milton Bradley.
Notes
- Mount St. Hilary seems clearly inspired by the real-world eruption of Washington's Mount St. Helens just a few years earlier and in the original treatment, it was going to be St. Helens the Ark was in.[1]
- The volcano is referred to as "Mount St. Helens" in the G1 Super-Size Coloring Activity Book.
- In the guidebook Beast Wars Universe, the volcano is referred as "Mount St. Helens".
- The location of the volcano is stated to be Oregon in most continuities. The Generation 1 cartoon does not give an explicit location.
- Eruptions and name aside, the Marvel Comics version is a much closer analogue to the dormant Mount Hood, which is in the state of Oregon, is only 50 miles from Portland (less than half the distance to St. Helens), and is a popular skiing destination, matching what's shown in issue #8. In issue #7, Ratchet has left the Ark on foot and wandered into Mount Hood National Forest while looking for a road, meaning Hood and St. Hilary must be in close proximity. Mount Hood even straddles the edge of Oregon's rain shadow, putting lush forests and dry deserts in close proximity, matching the terrain frequently shown in both comic and cartoon.
- In early scripts for the Generation 1 cartoon, the volcano was named Crater Mountain.
- Regardless of why "Hilary" was chosen as a stand-in for "Helens", there is a real-life St. Hilary.
Foreign names
- Mandarin: Shèng Hilary Shān (Taiwan, 聖希拉蕊山 Shèng Hsī-lā-juě Shān, "Mount St. Hilary"), Shèng Hilary Shān (China, 圣希拉里山 Shèng Xīlālǐ Shān, "Mount St. Hilary")
